1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an air cargo transport system, which transports the air cargo to the cargo holding area of the airport terminal building and aircraft parked on the tarmac parking area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to considerations such as the need to convey cargo into an aircraft in a short period of time, and the requirement to consider the balance of the aircraft when loading, as affected by the location of passengers, the weight of the cargo itself, etc., aircraft are normally equipped with multiple doors for loading cargo, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, the main door 70 in the center of the fuselage, the bulk door 71 in the rear of the fuselage, the lower door 72 in the front of the fuselage, and the nose door 73 at the front point of the fuselage. The transportation of the cargo stored inside of the airport terminal building to the area of the loading door is normally performed using a ramp equipment tractor 74 to tow package/cargo carts 75, lower deck container dollies 76, pallet dollies 77, etc. Further, this cargo is raised up to the loading door of the aircraft by such means as container/pallet loaders 78, self-propelled conveyor belt loaders 79, etc.
However, the required operations, such as loading the cargo onto the package/cargo carts 75, the lower deck conveyor dollies 76, the pallet dollies 77, etc; connecting these to the ramp equipment tractor 74; driving the ramp equipment tractor 74; transferring the cargo to the container/pallet loaders 78, the self-propelled conveyor belt loaders 79, etc; operating the container/pallet loaders 78 and self propelled conveyor belt loaders 79; moving the cargo into a specific place in the aircraft; all of these operations involve operating multiple types of equipments and employing numerous workers to move and convey the cargo, which are very labor intensive and entails high manpower costs. This system is also dangerous due to the possibility of accidents, such as collisions of the ramp equipment tractors as they move along the complex tarmac markings.